North Texas under a flood watch

Forecast calls for flood watch in Wichita Falls

Wichita Falls and much of North Texas is under a flash flood watch through Friday afternoon.

“A slow-moving storm system … will produce heavy rainfalls across portion of western, central and southern Oklahoma and western North Texas…,” the National Weather Service said in an advisory issued Wednesday

Clay, Wichita and Wilbarger counties are included in the watch, but Archer County — where the region’s critically low water reservoirs are located — is not.

Wichita County and northern Archer County are designated as areas that could receive 2 to 3 inches of rain during the two-day event.

However, the weather service warns, “Rainfall amounts remain uncertain and will likely change….”

Weather service radar showed a complex of storms moving toward Wichita Falls on Thursday morning, but they largely dissipated before reaching here. The city officially picked up .06-inch of rain by 5 p.m. Wednesday as measured at Sheppard Air Force Base.

The official Wichita Falls forecasts puts rain chances for Thursday at 90 percent, declining at night into Friday. Daytime highs will gradually recover into the 90s over the weekend after being unseasonably cool as the storm system moves through.

As of Wednesday morning, Wichita Falls was 6 inches below average rainfall for this date in the year. Combined water level in the area’s primary reservoirs was below 25 percent.